Media + PR

In addition to bringing in funding, launching a crowdfunding campaign can be a powerful and cost-effective tool for startups to execute a successful public relations campaign. By coupling your launch with a strong PR push, you gain added benefits like top tier press mentions and improved brand recognition. There is'also a direct correlation between the amount of media coverage your startup receives and the amount of funds it brings in.

In order to capture the attention of the media, you'll need to put together the right tools and information.

Gather your pitching tools

• Great subject line
• Concise email pitch
• Target Media Contacts.

Journalists are extremely busy and receive hundreds of pitches a day. To prevent your email from being promptly deleted, spend some time crafting a concise (less than 80 characters), attention-grabbing subject line. For the same reason, your email pitch needs to be equally as concise (bullet points are great). Think of your email pitch as a virtual elevator pitch. You'll also want to take time to research some target media contacts to get in touch with.

Here are a few other tips for pitching the press:

Target journalists that share your audience

Before reaching out to a journalist or blogger, you should do some research to discover who covers your industry and shares your target audience. Make a list of media outlets that you'd like to be in, then find the journalists who covers topics and startups similar to yours. Read a few of their pieces and reference them in your email pitch - it'll show you did your homework.

Coverage trickles up

It's easiest to start your outreach with small media outlets. Once you've got a few of these under your belt, use them as social proof when pitching to medium sized outlets. Top tiered outlets use small and medium sized publications as sources, so use them as social proof when pitching to the big players.

Sometimes it takes 2 emails... or 6

Journalists receive so many emails per day that it's easy to lose some in the shuffle. Follow up your email with another email, a phone call, a tweet - you get the picture. Keep following up until you get a response or feel that the contact has been “saturated.”

Make covering your startup valuable

Bloggers and online journalists are often paid by the pageview, so when you're featured, be sure to maximize their pageviews. Share the article on all of your social media platforms and email it to friends and family. Ask them to share the article, as well. If journalists equate covering you with a payday, you've just made a great contact for future coverage.

Make your pitch applicable to a large audience

Because online journalism pays by the pageview, journalists must choose the pitches they believe will appeal to the largest audience (and thereby generate the most pageviews). Write your pitch in such a way that your story is relatable to a larger industry issue; this will prove to the journalist that your story will attract a large audience.